The prior arts use of biologicals for soil and water remediation is well developed but their means of delivery varied widely. For example some applications have used large boring devices to drill holes in the contaminated soil and set casing into the hole but leave the hole open at the bottom to receive the treatment biologicals for biological remediation. This type of remediation is a very expensive system and very cumbersome and required large equipment. This type of bioremediation system also does not provide a fine adjustment of the remediation process because it relies upon a few large holes and not many small ones to tightly control the treatment area.
Also the prior art using the drilled holes and set casing required large drilling equipment to make the holes and large pipe handling equipment to set the pipe in the holes.
Yet another problem with the large bore hole biological approach is that it requires open ground and no structure overhead so that a drilling machine can be brought in to drill the hole. Thus in these type applications if any structure was in the way it would have to be removed in order to drill the hole and set the casing. This large bore hole biological approach could not therefore be used under slabs or foundations or under storage tanks without the removal of the structure.
There have even been cases where high pressure gas and oxygen have been added to the set casing hole to help drive the biologicals out into the surrounding soil to effect treatment. In some cases this approach using high pressure and large volumes has caused the contaminates to migrate and only spread the contaminates to other areas. The very concept of treatment relied upon migration to effect the bioremediation from it injection source. Also if and when high pressure was applied to the bore holes there has been a tendency to over pressure near the hole and have under pressure occur further out from the hole, again relying on the passive migration to adjust the imbalance.
In some cases the prior art has provided trenches or drilled in collection lines at the bottom of these contaminated areas to collect the contaminates driven to these drilled in collection lines for the purpose of collecting the driven contaminate for above ground treatment and reinjection back into the ground after treatment.
Also in the prior art are many other forms of remediation such as the removal of the contaminated soil to be delivered to a treatment site for incineration to burn off the contaminates and leave only clean soil after the process. This has been a very expensive process for remediation and cost is a very important factor in the remediation business for those firms who must be involved in remediation. It also can have the pollution side effect of vapor and air pollution while the soil is being removed and moved to the incineration site if not controlled, but the control adds cost to the process also.
Yet other prior art has used biologicals instead of incineration of the hauled off dirt at a remote treatment site in a controlled above ground treatment of the contaminated soil. This approach has many pollution problems such as possible water pollution and air pollution, and is also very expensive. It clearly means handling the soil twice, once on removal and once on completed treatment, just as incineration does.
Most of the prior art was and is designed and used in solo applications and does not work with the other remediation techniques. For example the removal of contaminated soils to a treatment site for bioremediation of soil would not generally work with or in conjunction with the bored hole and casing approach of bioremediation except in the case of a requirement of double treatment of the contaminated soil.